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Friday, August 06, 2010

Writing news

Fun Fridays

I finished revising this week. After 13 full drafts and at least 500 pages of rewrites, between cutting out 50 pages at a time and adding in another 50, I've finally produced a draft I am excited about.

It's got a cool hook. Minor characters have been fleshed out, subplots were expanded and made more interesting. I'm proud of this draft.

Whic means one of two things, it's sucks or it's awesome.

Are there weak places? yes. The prose is a little weak in spots.

But are the characters interesting? Yes.

Is the plot solid? Yes.

Are there marketing issues: Yes. I have a male protag--- basically the kiss of death. The girls in my book are sort if bitchy.

I've been working on this for about 3 years. Yikes. Over course I've been doing other things, writing other novels, working full time and raising a kid and husband, so it's not like 24 hours a day I've been devoted to this story.

My point is it took a LONG time to get it to a place where I'm happy with it. The first draft had a lot of drama for drama's sake. Don't ever be ashamed of the drafting process, make changes and tweeks. After your done and you STILL feel just as excited about it when you started, that's an awesome sign.

A few months ago my hubby won a critique from Kathleen Ortiz for me for our anniversary I sent her my MS last night. I'm super excited about it and terrified at the same time.

I've also made a new change to my novel. The title. For a long time it was called No System At All. The novel itself is about a band's rise to fame. But I sort of hated the name. It wasn't catchy or cool.
Now I've fleshed out a subplot where the main character does acts of renvenge of douche bags who hurt his friends.

9 comments:

sounds really exciting!! And a critique from K. Ortiz. WOW! Priceless. I like the name. When I saw n00bs I read bOObs at first glance. But that could just be me?

I also didn't know what Pwn meant until I read your pages on Writeon and just figured out what n00bs meant a few months ago. But... are 36-year-old moms your target group? I'm guessing not. I think it all depends on whether this will speak to your target group. As a 36-year-old mom I would definitely pick it up at a bookstore, to see just what those words I don't know are all about.

I'd like to know who the n00bs is referring to! And I've heard a lot agents are looking for male protags? I'd read it, certainly. Some of the best books I've read have male leads. (*cough*HarryPotter*cough*)

This is so exciting! Congrats, Erinn, and good luck with your critique!

Yes. I very much want to read your book. that seriously is an awesome title, especially since you did the cool thing and spelled noobs "n00bs." xD The only thing that could make it cooler would be if it were "n00bz" instead of "n00bs." xD

Congratulations on finishing your edits! I'm going to make a wild guess and say it's awesome. After all, don't we usually know when it's not? You KNOW you've got a strong story, plot and characters - and we KNOW you've got the the writing and the voice nailed. I'm fairly sure that means it's a cool book.

As for the title, I kind of liked the old one, but I kind of like the new one as well. Even if I have no idea what pwn or n00bs mean ;)